House Armed Services Committee

The House Armed Services Committee will commence a “pretty intense” schedule of hearings in preparation for drafting the fiscal 2017 defense authorization bill after the Obama administration delivers its new budget request next week, Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) told reporters Monday. The committee’s goal will be to complete work on the annual policy bill before appropriators start marking up annual spending measures, Thornberry said. “We’re going to be working pretty steadily over the next few weeks …

The tradeoffs required for the Marine Corps to cope with stringent budget caps over the past several years have come at the expense of efforts to upgrade its training ranges to handle new operational challenges, senior officials from the service told the House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee last month. “In recognition of the currently constrained fiscal environment, the Marine Corps has been required to sacrifice further range modernization for the sustainment and recapitalization of existing capacities and capabilities,” Maj. Gen. Charles Hudson, commander of Marine Corps Installations Command and assistant deputy commandant for installations and logistics, said during a Dec. 3 hearing on the impact of reduced funding for infrastructure and installation support …

The House Rules Committee voted late Wednesday night to send the fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill to the chamber floor to start debate today on the underlying measure along with 135 amendments. One of the most divisive amendments allowed would strike language encouraging the defense secretary to consider allowing recipients of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to serve in the military, reported the Hill. The amendment’s sponsor, Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), and 24 other Republican lawmakers had asked House Rules for the original language to be stricken from the defense policy measure because immigration issues are the responsibility of the Judiciary Committee …

After more than 18 hours of deliberations, the House Armed Services Committee early Thursday morning approved the fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill by a 60-2 vote. The legislation, which authorizes $523 billion in national security spending and $89 billion in funding for DOD’s overseas contingency operations account, now heads to the House floor later this month, reported the Hill. The measure rejects a number of cost-cutting reforms proposed by the Pentagon, including a request to hold a BRAC round in 2017, plans to trim support for commissaries and housing allowances for troops, and retiring the A-10 close air support jet …

For the second consecutive year, Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, plans to offer an amendment to the annual defense policy bill approving a new round of base closures. As Smith did last year, he plans to introduce the amendment when the committee marks up the fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill today, but withdraw it in the hopes of receiving a vote on the House floor, reported CQ Roll Call. Last year, however, the House Rules Committee blocked Smith’s proposal from receiving a vote when the House debated the measure. In addition to authorizing a BRAC round in 2017, the amendment is expected to include some reforms to the base closure process. For instance, it would require the defense secretary to certify that base closures would result in net savings within six years …

Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, reiterated his opposition to the Pentagon’s request to conduct a BRAC round in 2017, in a fact sheet accompanying the chairman’s mark of the fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill. The document acknowledges that DOD has expressed concerns that excess basing capacity is a financial drag on the department, as well as that its most recent capacity analysis is more than a decade old and does not reflect the probable future force posture. The fact sheet indicated, though, that Thornberry would remain extremely reluctant to approve a new round until the military’s roles and missions are better defined …